(CNN) - Facing sharp criticism for falling out of step with Pope Francis, the Archbishop of Atlanta has apologized for building a $2.2 million mansion on land bequeathed by the family of a famed Southern writer.

Atlanta's Archbishop Wilton Gregory said he approved construction of the 6,000-square-foot home after agreeing to leave the traditional archbishop's residence to make way for priests who serve the cathedral next door.

Gregory moved into the mansion in January.

"What we didn’t stop to consider, and that oversight rests with me and me alone, was that the world and the Church have changed," Gregory wrote Monday in the archdiocesan newspaper.

The archbishop's apology began by citing an e-mail from a Catholic woman who chided Gregory for failing to follow "the example of a simple life as Pope Francis calls for."

Gregory said he agrees and will consult church leaders about selling the mansion, which sits in Atlanta's upscale Buckhead neighborhood.

“The example of the Holy Father, and the way people of every sector of our society have responded to his message of gentle joy and compassion without pretense has set the bar for every Catholic and even for many who don’t share our communion.”

The archbishop's apology comes just days after the Pope accepted the resignation of Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst, also known as the "Bling Bishop," who spent $42 million renovating his residence in Limburg, Germany.

Since his election last year, Francis has repeatedly urged Catholics to focus on income inequality and the suffering of society's marginalized. "Oh, how I would like a poor Church, and for the poor," he has said.

The Pope himself has eschewed many of the trappings of papal life, living in a small apartment in the Vatican guesthouse instead of the sumptuous apartment in the Apostolic Palace and driving a small car instead of a limousine.

Francis' example has put pressure on American bishops to adopt similarly austere lifestyles and emboldened rank-and-file Catholics to call them out if they fall short.

In the past year, Archbishop Jon Myers of Newark, New Jersey, has been criticized for planning $500,000 to outfit his retirement home with a elevator, exercise pool, hot tub and library.

Catholics in Charleston, West Virginia, have written to the Pope's ambassador, asking him to probe construction costs, including $7.5 million spent on the chancery, the diocese's central offices, according to the Charleston Gazette.

In Atlanta, Gregory said he had received "many ... heartfelt, genuine and candidly rebuking" e-mails, phone calls and letters during the past week.

"I failed to consider the impact on the families throughout the Archdiocese who, though struggling to pay their mortgages, utilities, tuition and other bills, faithfully respond year after year to my pleas to assist with funding our ministries and services," the archbishop said.

Gregory said he will meet later this month with church councils to ask for "candid guidance" on whether to sell the abode, which was built on land donated by Joseph Mitchell, the nephew of "Gone With the Wind Novelist" Margaret Mitchell.

Does the human being not see that we created him from a tiny drop, then he turns into an ardent enemy? [36:77]

“He raises a question to us – while forgetting his initial creation – "Who can resurrect the bones after they had rotted?" [36:78]

“Say, "The One who initiated them in the first place will resurrect them. He is fully aware of every creation." [36:79]

“Is not the One who created the heavens and the earth able to recreate the same? Yes indeed; He is the Creator, the Omniscient.” [36:81]

“All He needs to do to carry out any command is to say to it, "Be," and it is.” [36:82]

“O people, here is a parable that you must ponder carefully: the idols you set up beside God can never create a fly, even if they banded together to do so. Furthermore, if the fly steals anything from them, they cannot recover it; weak is the pursuer and the pursued.” [22:73]

“They do not value God as He should be valued. God is the Most Powerful, the Almighty.”[22:74]

“If you obey the majority of people on earth, they will divert you from the path of God. They follow only conjecture; they only guess.” [Quran 6:116]

“The example of Jesus, as far as GOD is concerned, is the same as that of Adam; He created him from dust, then said to him, "Be," and he was.” Quran [3:59]

“It does not befit God that He begets a son, be He glorified. To have anything done, He simply says to it, ‘Be,’ and it is.” [19:35]

Thanks for taking time to read my post. Please take a moment to visit whyIslam org website.

April 4, 2014 at 8:53 am |

joey3467

The Quran is even more useless than the Bible.

April 4, 2014 at 9:55 am |

Reality

And yet again we come to save "lookatuniverse" or whatever name she/he calls herself these days:

From the studies of Armstrong, Rushdie, Hirsi Ali, Richardson and Bayhaqi----–

The Five Steps To Deprogram 1400 Years of Islamic Myths:

( –The Steps take less than two minutes to finish- simply amazing, two minutes to bring peace and rationality to over one billion lost souls- Priceless!!!)

Are you ready?

Using "The 77 Branches of Islamic "faith" a collection compiled by Imam Bayhaqi as a starting point. In it, he explains the essential virtues that reflect true "faith" (iman) through related Qur’anic verses and Prophetic sayings." i.e. a nice summary of the Koran and Islamic beliefs.

"2. To believe that everything other than Allah was non-existent. Thereafter, Allah Most High created these things and subsequently they came into existence."

Evolution and the Big Bang or the "Gi-b G-nab" (when the universe starts to recycle) are more plausible and the "akas" for Allah should be included if you continue to be a "crea-tionist".

"3. To believe in the existence of angels."

A major item for neuron cleansing. Angels/de-vils are the mythical creations of ancient civilizations, e.g. Hitt-ites, to explain/define natural events, contacts with their gods, big birds, sudden winds, protectors during the dark nights, etc. No "pretty/ug-ly wingy thingies" ever visited or talked to Mohammed, Jesus, Mary or Joseph or Joe Smith. Today we would classify angels as f–airies and "tin–ker be-lls". Modern de-vils are classified as the de-mons of the de-mented.

"4. To believe that all the heavenly books that were sent to the different prophets are true. However, apart from the Quran, all other books are not valid anymore."

Another major item to delete. There are no books written in the spirit state of Heaven (if there is one) just as there are no angels to write/publish/distribute them. The Koran, OT, NT etc. are simply books written by humans for humans.

Prophets were invented by ancient scribes typically to keep the un-educated masses in line. Today we call them for-tune tellers.

Prophecies are also invali-dated by the natural/God/Allah gifts of Free Will and Future.

"5. To believe that all the prophets are true. However, we are commanded to follow the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings
be upon him) alone."

Mohammed spent thirty days "fasting" (the Ramadan legend) in a hot cave before his first contact with Allah aka God etc. via a "pretty wingy thingy". Common sense demands a neuron deletion of #5. #5 is also the major source of Islamic vi-olence i.e. turning Mohammed's "fast, hunger-driven" hallu-cinations into horrible reality for unbelievers.

Walk these Five Steps and we guarantee a complete recovery from your Islamic ways!!!!

Unfortunately, there are not many Muslim commentators/readers on this blog so the "two-minute" cure is not getting to those who need it. If you have a Muslim friend, send him a copy and help save the world.

April 4, 2014 at 11:27 pm |

CS

(CNN) - In 2009, du Pont heir Robert H. Richards IV, 47, was convicted of raping his 3-year-old daughter and served no jail time because, a judge said, he would "not fare well" in prison. Where is your god now?

April 3, 2014 at 8:38 pm |

CS

"Where is your god now?" is not part of the CNN quote. But seriously though Christians, where the heck is God?

April 3, 2014 at 8:41 pm |

hotairace

Busy counting the take from the poor believers? Working with RCC leadership to keep pedophile priests and their protectors out of jail?

April 3, 2014 at 8:45 pm |

CS

It certainly makes me far better than god. I would never allow that. Ain't happnin'

Read about this. The guy is 6ft something and weighs way over 200lbs, but the stupid judge didn't think he'd "fare well."
He'd get the same treatment he gave his daughter.
He did this to his son, too.

Money talks. BS walks.

April 4, 2014 at 12:03 pm |

new-man

"You could burn every Bible that's ever been printed, remove it from every computer program, and you would not be able to destroy the Word of God, because the Word of God was, long before anything was ever printed." – KVallotton

April 3, 2014 at 6:15 pm |

hotairace

Penn Gillette said something like "if all religion and science went away (vanished), man would invent different gods but science would be rediscovered exactly the same.". I think Penn is smarter than your guy.

April 3, 2014 at 6:23 pm |

new-man

you and mr. jillette aren't smart enough to fit God into your very narrow and limited logic.

If any man lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives abundantly without finding fault. How amazing is Father!
Blessings friend.

April 3, 2014 at 6:39 pm |

hotairace

Alleged god, never proven. Enjoy your delusions, but please, stay away from children

April 3, 2014 at 6:42 pm |

new-man

The living Word is deposited within the spirit of each man that comes into the world.

This is the inner conscience of man that clearly knows right from wrong without having to read it in a book. This is where the war is fought in man and in nations.

nice try though; keep using that excuse and you will eventually believe it.

Ro 1:17-20 For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;

19 Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.

20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools

April 3, 2014 at 6:55 pm |

sam stone

you speak in a degrading manner about others' inteligence then go on and quote your iron age comic book?

April 3, 2014 at 7:50 pm |

new-man

how did you manage to set aside the massive plank in your eye, in order to point out the speck in someone else's.

April 3, 2014 at 9:00 pm |

sam stone

How are you able to formulate ANY thought with the bible jammed so far up your rectum?

April 4, 2014 at 8:08 am |

observer

If "KVallotton" is Kris Vallotton, he's just the senior associate leader of Bethel Church in Redding California. No Penn Jillette that's for sure.

April 3, 2014 at 6:44 pm |

new-man

mr. observer,
you are correct in identifying mr. Vallotton. The comparison of both men, I'm not sure what's to be gauged from that. Obviously you and I differ in our beliefs so it's only natural that you would revere mr. J over mr. V.

Since you brought it up though, it's God with a person that gives good success. So while Mr. V. enjoys good success, Mr. G is just successful. Subtle but major difference that I think if you gave it some thought you would agree with me.

In any event, I wish both you and Mr. J good success.
Blessings!

April 3, 2014 at 7:04 pm |

kudlak

Kinda like The Book of Eli, eh?

You do realize that the canon of the Bible was only settled upon by committee, in reaction to Marcionites establishing the first canon of Christian scriptures? Basically, the Roman-based Church used it's theological standard at that time to rule which books supported their theology, which is the opposite of most Christian's belief that the Bible dictated theology from the beginning. So, the Bible is a creation of men much more than the word of God.

And the votes were non-unanimous, Eseubius said (when he was culling the texts for the Roman emperor) there should be 4 gospels because there are 4 pillars on which the Earth stands and there are 4 winds. Makes perfect sense.

So the, your deity had it written, even though it was a waste of time. Hmm.
Not KValloton.

April 3, 2014 at 10:25 pm |

new-man

The gospel of the kingdom is the ultimate reign of Christ demonstrated in some sphere right here, right now. It means God's will can be done here in earth as it is in heaven.
To disciple nations is to teach them about the kingdom and how it operates.

Actually that's all revisionist nonsense. The messiah was SUPPOSED to re-establish the ancient Kingdom of David, (and even the disciples thought it was ... they asked Jesus just before the Ascension : Acts 1:6 "They gathered around him and asked him, 'Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel ?"

It's very inconvenient for Christians to have it pointed out to them their messiah did NOT GET THE JOB DONE, and after the Bar Kochba revolt and Jerusalem was completely destroyed, they had to cook up a new paradigm, to keep the failed cult going. Hence the invented a "spiritual kingdom" as a place-holder.

April 3, 2014 at 6:34 pm |

new-man

a man who reads/learns the Bible without the Holy Spirit is already deceived.
Friend you need the guidance of the Holy Spirit to lead you into all truths, otherwise you're like a vehicle without fuel- you have no power to get you anywhere i.e. your words are meaningless.

Atheists preach more than religious people do here. It's actually kinda funny to watch because it disproves the atheist argument to pieces(that atheism isn't a religion but they have made it into a religion nowadays. Why would atheism need a church if it's not a religion oh but wait! They exist! 😃😊😄😊)

Someday when you get to leave the trailer park you will learn there is a difference between a philosophy and a religion. But we all know you NEED to keep it very very very simple for now, since that's pretty much what you NEED to deal in. When you get all big, and get out of mommy's basement, you will actually (maybe) sign up for a class.

For the sake of argument I would stipulate that adherents of secular humanism behave in a way that is indistinguishable from that of the religious. If you want to call secular humanism a religion, I won't object.

Some do. Most don't. I object to your generalization and will continue to object to your generalization.

As I have already agreed with you, secular humanists (who act like the religious) and militant atheists who profess a categorical belief in the non-existence of God are indistinguishable from the religious.

Every time you post your wild generalization that "atheism is a religion". I will object.

"the Crusaudes and other events down our throats, acting like we are responsible for it."

The Crusades are a matter of historical fact. That they were orchestrated by the spiritual leader of Latin Christianity is also historical fact. They demonstrate the evil that can be done in the name of God. The motto/battle cry of the Crusades was "Deus vult" (God wills it).

Were you personally responsible for the Crusades, of course not, but it is inextricably linked to your religion. The Muslims had their own conquest in the name of God.

I'm tired of the assertion that I, as an atheist, am somehow culpable for the egregious excesses of Communist autocrats. The Communist mass murders of the 20th century whether deliberate or through mismanagement (most of the deaths were due to famine) were horrific crimes and demonstrate the evil that often comes with absolute power, but they were not done in the name of 'atheism'.

The absence of belief is not belief in absence.
No matter how many time religionsts claim atheism is a religion (which only proves they NEED to, and can only think in their very limited conventional terms), it does not make it true.
a-symptomatic : no symptoms
a-traumatic ; no trauma
a-symmetrical : no symmetry
a-theism : no theism

Wrong again. I just demonstrated your reasoning to be false AND you have never once said what atheists have faith in, or "believe". Nice try. Fail again. You must really like making a fool of yourself. What are you ? Like in 4th Grade ?

April 3, 2014 at 6:48 pm |

kudlak

We're mostly sharing factual information about religion and offering logical arguments. When was the last time you ever got that from a religion?

A few problems with the creationist idea that dinosaurs cohabited with human beings.

1. As any child knows, many dinosaurs were big. Really big. We’ve all seen photos of T-rex. T-Rex was not even the largest carnivorous dinosaur we know of. Spinosaurus, Argentinosaurus and Carcharodontosaurus were all larger and even more fearsome. Even they were not large enough to bring down the largest sauropods we know of, many species of which weighed in at close to 100 tons and were about 100 feet long. This is in addition to the Stegosaurus and hundreds of other species, all of which, while not as large and fearsome as the above, were all larger than any elephant or other living land animal.

And yet, no culture anywhere in the World wrote about them, drew them, incorporated them into their beliefs, or otherwise recorded them!!! Cultures all over the World recorded bears, lions, eagles, deer, buffalo, elephants and other mammals much smaller than dinosaurs, but totally ignored the dinosaurs, which were many times larger and more fearsome!! Come on.

2. There has never been a valid case of a dinosaur fossil being found in rock younger than 65 million years. Nowhere.

3. Where are they now? If they all cohabited with us, where did they go?

The atheist belief and explanation is not based on science. It's based on your imagination and determination to mock anybody that doesn't agree with your atheistic beliefs. Fail troll. Fail.

April 3, 2014 at 5:47 pm |

Reality

"In its 4.6 billion years circling the sun, the Earth has harbored an increasing diversity of life forms:

for the last 3.6 billion years, simple cells (prokaryotes);
for the last 3.4 billion years, cyanobacteria performing photosynthesis;
for the last 2 billion years, complex cells (eukaryotes);
for the last 1 billion years, multicellular life;
for the last 600 million years, simple animals;
for the last 550 million years, bilaterians, animals with a front and a back;
for the last 500 million years, fish and proto-amphibians;
for the last 475 million years, land plants;
for the last 400 million years, insects and seeds;
for the last 360 million years, amphibians;
for the last 300 million years, reptiles;
for the last 200 million years, m-ammals;
for the last 150 million years, birds;
for the last 130 million years, flowers;
for the last 60 million years, the primates,
for the last 20 million years, the family H-ominidae (great apes);
for the last 2.5 million years, the genus H-o-mo (human predecessors);
for the last 200,000 years, anatomically modern humans.

Periodic extinctions have temporarily reduced diversity, eliminating:

2.4 billion years ago, many obligate anaerobes, in the oxygen catastrophe;
252 million years ago, the trilobites, in the Permian–Triassic extinction event;
66 million years ago, the pterosaurs and nonavian dinosaurs, in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event."

Brysom's best seller, "A Short History of Nearly Everything" will fill in the details in language that we the common man understand.

And in 1 billion years, the Earth will be so hot that no life can survive on it.

Everything you have ever done or worked on will be erased.

No matter how important you were, one day you will be forgotten.

What is the point of anything you do if it will all be erased one day?

There is no point. Unless there is a God who has a purpose for your life and your eternal soul, everything you do here is irrelevant. It would be just as meaningful if no life ever formed on Earth.

I have no idea why that is an attractive belief to anyone.

April 3, 2014 at 6:15 pm |

hotairace

Yup! We're merely organisms doing the best we can for ourselves, our families and our friends on a small planet far away from the center of the universe. Why can't you deal with that? Why do you need an imaginary friend, an alleged but never proven god, to buck you up?

I never said Christians lead terrible lives. You said there was no point living without the promise of eternal life.

I simply reject that notion. A whole lifetime of valuable experiences is possible with or without any hope of eternal life. While we live it makes no difference whatsoever whether you think there is a God or not unless you need this as a crutch for motivation.

I simply don't belief in any kind of after life. It doesn't make my life any less meaningful.

April 3, 2014 at 6:35 pm |

kudlak

guidedans
Who is egotistical enough to expect to be remembered in a billion years?

April 3, 2014 at 10:25 pm |

Reality

Make that "Bryson's.........

April 3, 2014 at 11:42 pm |

Reality

The extinction of the human species might come before the expansion and burn out of our Sun:

What we do know: (from the fields of astrophysics, biology, biochemistry, archeology, nuclear physics, geology and the history of religion)

1. The Sun will burn out in 3-5 billion years so we have a time frame.

2. Asteroids continue to circle us in the nearby asteroid belt.

3. One wayward rock and it is all over in a blast of permanent winter.

4. There are enough nuclear weapons to do the same job.

5. Most contemporary NT exegetes do not believe in the Second Coming so apparently there is no concern about JC coming back on an asteroid or cloud of raptors/rapture.

6. All stars will eventually extinguish as there is a limit to the amount of hydrogen in the universe. When this happens (100 trillion years?), the universe will go dark. If it does not collapse and recycle, the universe will end.

7. Super, dormant volcanoes off the coast of Africa and under Yellowstone Park could explode cataclysmically at any time ending life on Earth.

The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.